How Does Holden Get Himself

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his journey to find himself. Holden Caulfield is a 17 year old boy who constantly moving around from place to place on account of his frequent expulsions from school for, as he and his teachers put it, “not applying himself”. Holden consistently feels alone in the world surrounded by phonies. After being expelled once again from his school, this time Pency Prep, Holden decides that before returning home he should go to New York City. Holden’s main reason is in fear that his parents might realize that he has failed out of Pency. He does not want them to know until the letter comes home from his former principal explaining that he was expelled again. While in New York Holden is narrating to us all …show more content…

He seems to find happiness only while talking about his younger sister Phoebe or his dead brother Allie. Holden wishes that all people were like children with their innocence and their ability to be real, he wishes his job could be to catch them when playing in a field of rye, if they’re about to run over the edge, as Holden says “That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). Later in the story Holden goes to many bars and meets many people new and old attempting to find people like him, people who are genuine. This is a task that is impossible because he is a hypocrite. Even as he explaining how much he hates phonies he is lying to the people around him. Holden cannot find people he likes being with for more than a little while, making him lonely for most of the time. A thought he finds depressing. After wondering around New York for a few days he makes up his mind that he is going to run away and start over fresh, he decides that before he does this he must say good-bye to his sister. In the end Holden finds his sister Phoebe and they go to the zoo together, as he is talking to her he learns that he loves her and that his life here is better than life anywhere

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